1833.] Journal of a Mission from Ava to Kendat. 69 
19th. Seven h. 15 m. leave Oo ;—10 h. 30 m. the river gives offa 
branch nearly as wide as the main stream. 10 h. 45 m. pass the 
city of Men-gen, about 150 houses with gardens, tastefully disper- 
sed along the banks of the river: where also are the boats of the 
village, (for a village it is now,) amounting to about 100 or up- 
wards, many of them good sized. 12 h. 20 m. the branch men- 
tioned at 10 h. 30m. here rejoined the main stream. 3 h.35 m. 
Mouk-ka-dau, and at 5 h. halt at Thoun-bouk, where the horses had 
arrived about a quarter of an hour before us ; we passed six villages 
to-day, including Men-gen and Mouk-ka-dau ; all small, but the two 
named ; the course of the river was very circuitous, and the hills (which 
are of sandstone, soft and friable at the upper part and more compact 
near the bottom) again close to it, but to-day frequently only on one 
side, the other being level. 
20th. From this we returned by the same route we travelled in the 
way up, making longer marches, and reached Ava in six days. We had 
heavy rain the first three marches, from which the people look on the 
rains as set in, and are in many places preparing the ground for the paddy. 
The last three days, however, it cleared up again, and the sun was exceed- 
ingly powerful till our arrival at Ava, where we halted on the 25th, at 
noon. 
Should it ever be necessary to move a force across this part of 
the country, the way in which I have returned is the only practicable 
one. From Ken-dat to Thoun-bouk, the road is impassable for all sorts of 
carriage, but boats may be had on the river: from Thoun-bouk to Ava 
the road is good; water, cattle, grain, every necessary in greatest abun- 
dance. 
It may be worthy of remark here, asa little clue to the feelings of the 
people towards us, that I was very well received by the Debayen and 
Kambat Woons; that after the third day’s march, ¢és or little tempo- 
rary houses were invariably erected for us as had been ordered by the 
Woon-gyees, and the people voluntarily appeared to pay us more atten- 
tion in proportion as we receded from the capital. On my return, the 
lower orders were universally anxious to learn the result of my Mission, 
with the object of which they all appeared acquainted ; and on being told 
that every thing was quiet and right, I was always greeted by the excla- 
mation of ‘‘ thadoo,” ‘‘ thadoo*,’’ (counting beads at the same time)—an 
expression which entitles the person making it to a portion of the merit 
arising from a good work, whilst it increases, or at all events does not 
diminish that accruing to the performer of it. 
* A term of approbation in Burmese, ‘‘ well done—that is right.” 
